Д.Д.

yes, ⬆️ who is who as of 50 years ago.

Mikołaj Trzaska on alto saxophone and clarinets is a world-class musician. He has a huge discography. I like this old one a lot: Piotr Wojtasik is an excellent trumpeter, he leads a first-rate international group (Michel Donato, such an underrated bassist) on this date: If you can find it, this is a beautiful disc: Bogdan Precz "Grudusko" https://www.discogs.com/release/31569772-Bogdan-Precz-Grudusko . Trombone / accordion duo, you don't hear that too often. Precz would die young in a car crash. From what I know, this is his only album.

I did not know this one. Just listend to it - it's a good one, if a bit show-offish. There's a lot (in relative terms) of conversation about French jazz in France. If you mean this board - well, what can I say... When I was living in Paris (in 1999-2000), somebody like Sclavis or Portal or Solal would fill large concert halls (probably 400-500 people or so). Galliano too, of course - he was very much appreciated by non-jazz audiences. Les Allumes Du Jazz is a good source for French jazz: https://www.lesallumesdujazz.com/e-boutique,accueil

Well, you see them in NYC where they can roll out of their beds to go to a gig. I see them after flights, train rides, crappy hotels, jet-lags and being forced to spend a lot of time with their bandmates, etc. This might account for a difference in attitude. Meanwhile, I listened to that Sanchez-Guy-Lopez album on Spotify, it's really nothing special, IMHO. If you want some new Barry Guy with a pianist, this one, released on on ECM last month, is better:

I saw / heard Sanchez just once, it was a Harris Eisenstad's band with Eskelin. Don't remember if it was a trio or there was somebody else as well. Sanchez seemed to be sulking and her playing was trite. Will check out this new one with Guy & Lopez, their other piano trio with Agusti Fernandez is fantastic.

As per Discogs, he is on close to 40 albums released since 2017: https://www.discogs.com/artist/316511-Drew-Gress?superFilter=Instruments+%26+Performance

My favorite "with a drummer" duo is the one with Günter Sommer. But I like them all, it's a great body of work.

Oh no :(. Schweizer is my favorite jazz pianist. Saw her live (solo) once in a small club in Geneva in 2006 - it was an excellent concert.

Hans, you are right. "Processing fee" can be a bitch, though. It is between €5 (when handled by Austrian post) and €20 (DHL) here in Austria.

Most likely you will have to pay Polish VAT + "processing fee". If the order is more than €150 there will be import tariffs as well.

Barney Kessel - Soaring. Pure joy.

Have oyu heard the full album yet? The one track (the shortest one, admittedly) available on bandcamp is hardly more than "cute", IMHO.

Confront Recordings has a nice subscription offer on bandcamp: GBP 30 / year for all new digital releases (about 20 per year) + four random back catalog items + 15% discount on physical items + some subscriber-only releases. Subscribe here: https://confrontrecordings.bandcamp.com/subscribe They have some tasty looking stuff released this year:

Szukalski plays only on one track on this album (and on soprano, not tenor), but it's an excellent work overall: Was checking out Namyslowski discography and learned that the man died in 2022. He was a good musician.

This is a good records with Szukalski: https://www.discogs.com/master/260216-Zbigniew-Namysłowski-Winobranie

Allen, will it be on ESP Disk?

Potlatch is running a summer sale, €10 per CD, worldwide shipping included. Note that many of the earlier (and jazzier) CDs are OOP.

As for the cheapest one, Illinois Jacquet seems to consistently sell for $40-50: https://www.discogs.com/release/3220518-Illinois-Jacquet-The-Complete-Illinois-Jacquet-Sessions-1945-50 (image attached). There is currently a copy for sale for $30: https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/3007939706 Buck Clayton sells for cheap as well: https://www.discogs.com/release/7114702-Buck-Clayton-The-Complete-CBS-Buck-Clayton-Jam-Sessions . Got me a sealed copy for €40 recently, and I can't even say that this was a particularly great deal price-wise (no complaints music-wise). In general, CD sets - with few exceptions - don't seem to be valued that much.

Yeah, Mathews is on fire on this one...

Which one is that?

Jazz in Britain has excellent deal on annual subscription for digital versions, GBP 48 - you get all new releases and the full back catalog: Subscribe to Jazz In Britain | Jazz In Britain (bandcamp.com)

What an insightful advice! Now I know how to listen to the music the right way. Here are couple more excellent albums: Joachim Gies "Whispering Blue" (Leo) and Hermann Bühler "Alto Solo" (Dreamscape).

My favorite ones are early John Butcher solo records - "13 Friendly Numbers", "Invisible Ear" and "Fixations (14)". These are the solo saxophone records I return to most often. I don't like solo Lacy that much, I definitely prefer Lol Coxhill when it comes to soprano saxophone. With Lacy I get a feeling that rhythm section is missing - particularly when he plays Monk tunes. With Coxhill it's all harmoniously complete. One excellent solo record that I think was not mentioned is Mototeru Takagi "Love Dance". This is some really lyrical stuff. https://www.discogs.com/release/22195261-高木元輝-Love-Dance-Solo-Live-At-Galerie-De-Café-伝-Tokyo-1987-1997 And Ellery Eskelin has a very nice solo record: I see Urs Leimgruber just released a new solo soprano album, I bet it's good:

I have a couple of these B.free (or BE!, they have various logos on different releases) festival sets as well, still have to listen to them in full. Yes, they are bootlegs alright. There are no liner notes as such - just track listing (often incorrect) and personnel (mostly correct), lots of photos and reproductions of old press clippings (some quite entertaining). No Information about the label to be found anywhere on the release. At the same time, I can't say I have particular qualms about buying these sets because I am fully aware that it would have been impossible to release them (and these are 12-CD sets!) securing authorization of all the (dozens!) of musicians involved. Legal side of it all is probably quite convoluted anyway. The festival organizer, Karlheinz Klüter, arranged for the music to be professionally recorded. There should have been at least tacit approval of the musicians. Their performance fees probably included payment for recording (or it least in could plausibly be interpreted this way). The tapes were in legal possession of the festival producer, and he had some of the music released on LPs on his (presumably legit) label in the '70s and '80s: https://www.discogs.com/artist/624261 . He died 10 years ago and his son passed the tapes to B.free people (there is an acknowledgement in the booklet). So unauthorized - probably yes, illegal - not necessarily. Whatever, I am glad the music is available, there is some great stuff here. The German company behind BE! label was liquidated a few years back, by the way: https://www.northdata.de/BE!+Record+Productions+GmbH,+Bruchsal/Amtsgericht+Mannheim+HRB+717316